STAGHORN SUMACH; HAIRY SUMACH (Rhus hirta, Sudw.). 

 25 to 35 feet. Low, flat-topped tree with stout, erect, fork- 

 ing branches. Bark smooth, brown, thin, separating into 

 squarish scales; branches smooth, marked with orange- 

 colored lenticels and leaf scars; twigs coated with fine, thick, 

 soft, brown hairs. Wood brown, coarse-grained, soft, brittle; 

 pith abundant in twigs. Roots fleshy, sending up shoots to 

 form thickets on gravelly banks. Leaves pinnate, compound, 

 velvety, dark green above, pale to white beneath, leaflets 

 narrow lanceolate, tapering to apex, coarsely cut-toothed on 

 margins, 11 to 31 on stout petiole, turning to yellow and scar- 

 let in autumn, fading to crimson and purple. Flowers in 

 dense, hairy, pyramidal, erect clusters, greenish, the tw T o sorts 

 on separate trees. Individual flowers very small, with parts 

 distinct; staminate clusters larger than pistillate. Fruit on 

 fertile trees in compact, large, red panicles, of small, globular, 

 thin-fleshed drupes, with skin coated with acrid hairs, and 

 containing a brown, bony seed. Persistent through winter. 

 Dist.: Southern Canada west to Winnipeg; south to Georgia 

 and Mississippi. Planted as a ground cover for rocky, broken 

 ground in parks and estates. W T ood used for walking-sticks, 

 etc. Bark and roots yield tannin for dyeing. 

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